1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a medicine for oculopathy, and more particularly to medicines for oculopathy such as, for example, a therapeutic reagent for glaucoma and an intraocular pressure depressant which have a serotonin receptor 1A ligand of a specific structure as an active component.
Oculopathy like glaucoma, has been attracting growing social attention as one of the adult diseases particularly in such advanced countries as are on the verge of qualifying as a community of extremely high senility.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Oculopathy such as, for example, glaucoma refers to the group of diseases in which morbid alterations inducive of abnormal intraocular pressure injure intraocular tissues and optic nerve function in particular. As concerns the mechanism which is responsible for the morbid alterations, it is generally held that the morbid alterations are mainly caused by the symptom of ischemia and the disturbed blood flow in the axial cylinder of the optic nerve owing to the disturbance of circulation in the optic nerve disc which originates in the elevation of the intraocular pressure. Various medicinal therapies aimed at the adjustment of the intraocular pressure have been tried with success (as reported in "Ophthalmology Mook No. 9, 1979, `Therapy of Glaucoma,` published by Kanahara Publishing Co., Ltd.," for example). The mechanism responsible for the elevation of the intraocular pressure, however, remains yet to be elucidated and the desirability of developing a better medicine for the therapy of glaucoma has been finding enthusiastic recognition.
The ligand of the serotonin receptor is known to manifest various pharmacological actions such as the action to contract the blood vessels, the action to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, anti-depression activity, the action to decrease blood pressure, and anti-platelet aggregation activity and has been used for the therapy of diseases as an agent for anti-depression, an agent for anti-anxiety, and an agent for anti-hypertension. Among the serotonin receptor ligands, an alkylene dioxybenzene derivative is a selective ligand of the serotonin receptor 1A (hereinafter occasionally referred to briefly as "5-HT.sub.1A receptor") and is known to have the action to decrease blood pressure and anti-anxiety activity (U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,739 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,099).